I have recently set up a Jellyfin server running on a Beelink S12 pro in docker (with a few other containers running), and I am having a few problems with stuttering video.
I get little micro-stutters every few seconds regardless of whether it is direct play or transcoding and regardless of what client I use (librelec with Jellyfin plugin), android phone, or firefox on a windows laptop), and I am struggling to narrow down the cause of it.
Any ideas of where I should look first?
The server utilisation seems low, I have tried a wired and wifi connection, I have tried 720, 1080, and 2160 resolution videos, with and without transcoding.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: I think I have now fixed the problem. I tried a new setup on my gaming PC and everything worked fine. This was running on the same network and same client. This made me think it was something with my server. I used the cup-shares docker command to prioritise the jellyfin container and I’ve had no stutters since.
Sounds like your Video file might be to blame. Does it always happen at the same time stamps? Maybe try watching it locally, does it happen there aswell?
Might be a network issue, check your upload speed. I had similar problems and the issue was that I was using a cat5 cable on my server, which was limiting the upload to 100mb, causing it to stutter while playing videos with high bitrates
Sounds like you have a network bottleneck. Check your router’s bandwidth settings for something something duplex (can’t recall exact name), make sure the settings are max/full.
If that fails, most Jellyfin clients should allow you to specify large cache sizes.
The data is on an SATA SSD but I could try moving some over to the small M2 drive to see if there is a difference.
Jellyfin is the only process accessing it.
Have you isolated source formats? Does it do this with h264 and hevc?
Tried stopping other containers and/or all other services? Could have less to do with pure power and more with sheer volume (scheduling.)
Any issues if you use the current server as a file server and play the video on another machine? Any modifications to playback speed?
If none of that works you might try iperf3 to check network speeds. Or fio for disk speeds. Run tests covering all kinds of situations, you’re not so much looking for max speeds but instead for inconsistencies.
Don’t get too lost in the small stuff. Isolate systems. Might even move or clone the boot drive to another machine as a test. Try a different switch. That kind of thing.
I have run a jellyfin off my gaming PC and that worked fine out of the box - no stuttering. This is over wifi on the same network, which makes me think that there is something specific to my new set up that is going wrong.
I will definitely check the network speeds though and run a few more tests.
If you have any torrent service running maybe try stopping that temporarily and see if that helps. I was having a similar issue with stuttering and found another person mentioning qbittorrent as the culprit.
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Aren’t you playing H265 on player not supporting it?
I’ve tried x265 and x264 with the same result.
Sounds like your Video file might be to blame. Does it always happen at the same time stamps? Maybe try watching it locally, does it happen there aswell?
Thanks for the idea.
It doesn’t happen locally or the same times. Definitely seems like some kind of network/jellyfin issue.
Anything in the Jellyfin logs?
Might be a network issue, check your upload speed. I had similar problems and the issue was that I was using a cat5 cable on my server, which was limiting the upload to 100mb, causing it to stutter while playing videos with high bitrates
What’s the specs? I had a rbp4 with Kodi/libre elec and a laptop as a server (like 6gb ram, ryzen 5000u?) And the raspberry pi couldn’t play shit.
Upgraded all to used office sff with Intel 6core+ and haven’t had too much of an issue if any.
The raspberry pi had to get a lot transcoded
Sounds like you have a network bottleneck. Check your router’s bandwidth settings for something something duplex (can’t recall exact name), make sure the settings are max/full.
If that fails, most Jellyfin clients should allow you to specify large cache sizes.
Where are you storing your data, and how many processes are accessing it at once?
The data is on an SATA SSD but I could try moving some over to the small M2 drive to see if there is a difference. Jellyfin is the only process accessing it.
Any SSD should be plenty fast. My server uses a 7200RPM hard drive mounted as a network drive via NFS.
Note that m.2 is a form factor, not a protocol. There are m.2 SATA SSDs. If you want a faster SSD, ensure it is nvme.
Sorry, it is nvme
Have you isolated source formats? Does it do this with h264 and hevc?
Tried stopping other containers and/or all other services? Could have less to do with pure power and more with sheer volume (scheduling.)
Any issues if you use the current server as a file server and play the video on another machine? Any modifications to playback speed?
If none of that works you might try iperf3 to check network speeds. Or fio for disk speeds. Run tests covering all kinds of situations, you’re not so much looking for max speeds but instead for inconsistencies.
Don’t get too lost in the small stuff. Isolate systems. Might even move or clone the boot drive to another machine as a test. Try a different switch. That kind of thing.
Good luck!
Hey thank you for the help.
I have run a jellyfin off my gaming PC and that worked fine out of the box - no stuttering. This is over wifi on the same network, which makes me think that there is something specific to my new set up that is going wrong.
I will definitely check the network speeds though and run a few more tests.
Yes. Try using iperf to test connection speed between the client and the server.
Are you running with subtitles? I had the same issue and it disappeared when I turned off subtitles
No, never used subtitles.
Thanks for the suggestion though
If you have any torrent service running maybe try stopping that temporarily and see if that helps. I was having a similar issue with stuttering and found another person mentioning qbittorrent as the culprit.